Sunday, November 14, 2010

In both my writing and my speech, I frequently make grammatical errors.
I do not believe that perfect grammar should necessarily be anyone's goal, but there are a few things I keep hearing misused. So please, STOP IT.

Item One

To WHOM it may concern:
There is a difference between who and whom. I promise.
Example.

WRONG Who did you give it to?RIGHTTo whom did you give it?

Whom is an object, who is a subject. Not that hard to remember.
When in doubt, answer the question in the masculine. If you would answer "him" then you should be saying "whom," and if you would answer "he," you should be saying "who."

As above, you probably gave it to "him." If you gave it to "he," this blog post should be meant for you, but there are a lot of things you need to brush up on before worrying about who and whom.

Item Two

I could care less.

Really? You could? Well then that means you care.
Repeat after me, "I couldn't care less."

Item Three

You don't got it.
You have it.

WRONG What's he got in his mouth?RIGHT What does he have in his mouth?

There are times when "got" is appropriate.
Example:

Lex Luther "Where did you get that spandex suit anyway?"
Superman "I got it from Santa."
Lex Luther "You still believe in Santa?"
Superman "Yeah, I fly up to visit him weekly, just because you never got anything from him doesn't mean he's not real.
Lex Luther "Have you been drinking the kryptonite kool-aid?"
Superman "What does the kool-aid have in it?"
Lex Luther "I forgot."

Now tell me what people say that bothers you, then go forth in confidence without saying silly things which make you sound like the previous president.

2
reflections:

My most hated phrase, heard a LOT here in Ohio..."Where you at?". There's NO VERB and it ENDS IN A PREPOSITION! Gaahhhhh! It bothers me less when someone throws the "are" in there, but still. Boost Mobile uses this as their "motto" in commercials, and that is a huge reason why I will never patron their service.